CHAPTER FIVE.
HOW MARK EDEN FOUND THE RAVEN'S NEST.
"Ah, there he goes," said Mark, beneath his breath, as he stoodmotionless, and watched a large raven flapping along, high overhead, inthe direction he was taking. "Perhaps that's the cock bird. Looks big.The nest may be where old Master Rayburn says, or up this way, and thebird's going for food."
He waited till the raven disappeared, and then went on down-stream,taking to a path higher up, which led him by a pretty cottage, standingin a niche at a bend of the river, so that the place had a good view upand down-stream, and with its pleasant garden, looked the sort of homewhich might well make its owner content.
But Mark Eden's mind was too full of ravens' nests, to leave room forany contemplation of the old scholar's cottage; and he hurried on by thepath, which cut off two or three bends of the river, taking him rightaway for quite a couple of miles, and bringing him to the water's-edgeagain, just in front of a mighty cliff, which towered up out of a densegrove of beeches on the other side of the river.
The place was solitary and still in the extreme; and going close down tothe water's-edge, Mark Eden seated himself upon a mossy stone, betweentwo great hawthorns, which hid him from anything coming up ordown-stream, while brambles, ferns, and clustering hemlock-plants, hidhis back and front.
It was a pleasant resting-place, to sit and watch the rapidly runningriver, which was very shallow here; and from his hiding-place, he couldsee the shadows of the ripples, and the stony bottom, and also thosecast by trout, as they glided here and there, waiting for theunfortunate flies and caterpillars which had fallen from overhangingboughs, to be washed down the stream.
But Mark had but a glance for the fish: his attention was taken up bythe mass of precipitous stone before him, so steep, that it was onlyhere and there, in cracks or on ledges, that herb or stunted bush couldfind a place to root; and as he scanned the precipice, from its footamong the beeches, to its brow, five hundred feet above where he sat, hewondered whether the ravens nested there.
No more likely place could be found for the great birds to rear theiryoung; the cliff looked inaccessible, and days would pass, sometimesweeks, and not a soul come near.
"Old Master Rayburn must be right," thought the lad. "What eyes he hasfor everything of this kind. There are no rooks in the beeches; thereisn't a jackdaw about; and I haven't seen a rock-dove; all proof thatthe ravens are here, for the others would not dare to nest near them.Only be to hatch young ones for food. But I don't see my gentleman norhis lady."
A hoarse, distant bark was heard, just as the lad's neck began to achewith staring up in vain, in the search for the nest, and he satperfectly motionless, crouched amongst the hemlock and heracleum, to berewarded by seeing a shadow thrown on the white limestone far on high,and directly after one of the great glossy black birds alight, right onthe edge of the cliff, from whence it hopped into the air, and seemed tolet itself fall some forty feet, down behind a stunted patch of broom,which had rooted in a cleft. There it disappeared for a few moments, toreappear, diving down toward the stream, but only to circle upwardagain, rise higher and higher, and finally disappear over the cliff,half a quarter of a mile away.
"Found it!" panted Mark; "a nest with young ones. Chance if there areany eggs for Master Rayburn."
He leaned back to examine the place.
"Can't get up there," he muttered at last; "but it would be easy to getdown from the top. I could do it, but--"
He took off his cap, and gave his brown hair a vicious scratch, forthere were other obstacles in the way.
It would be easy to wade across the river; easy to make his way alongthe other side to where the cliff sloped, five hundred yards lower downthe stream. From there he could reach the high down, which was brokenoff short to form the cliff, and walk along the edge till he was exactlyover the nest, and then descend. Those were not obstacles, but trifles.The great difficulty was moral. That great mass of limestone was onthe Darley estate, and for a few minutes, the lad felt as if he mustgive it up.
But obstacles only spurred him on to action, and he cried to himself,petulantly:
"Is it theirs? Who are they, to claim an open wild place like that?They'll be saying next that all Darbyshire belongs to them. It's asmuch ours as theirs, and, if we had our rights, it would be ours. Ishall go, in spite of all the Darleys in the county. Who are they?Piece of rock and moor like that, and they claim it. Let them. I shallnot stop away for them."
The boy flushed, and ignoring the fact that he was about to commit atrespass, he slipped off shoes and hose, waded straight across theshallow river, and sat down on the other side to dry his feet, and puton hose and shoes again.
And all the time he felt a strong desire to glance up and down theriver, to see if he had been observed by any one; but in his pride ofheart he would not, for fear that he would be seen watching, and someone connected with his family's enemies take it for a sign of fear.
This done, he rose, gave his feet a stamp, glanced up at the face of thecliff, to see one of the parent ravens fly off, uttering an angry croak;and then he began to bear off to the right, so as to ascend the low partof the cliff, reaching the top quite five hundred yards away, andturning at once to continue his ascent by walking along the edge, whichrose steeply, till it reached the point above the raven's nest, and thensloped down into a hollow, to rise once more into the wooded eminencewhich was crowned by Cliff Castle, the Darleys' home.
"They've a deal better place than we," said Mark to himself, as hestrode on, in full defiance of the possibility of being seen, though itwas hardly likely, a great patch of mighty beech-trees, mingled withfirs, lying between the top of the big cliff and the Darleys' dwelling."More trees, and facing toward the west and south, with the river belowthem, while our home is treeless and bare, and looks to the north andeast, and is often covered with snow when their side's sunny and bright.My word! warm work, climbing up here, and the grass is as slippery asif it had been polished. Mustn't go over. Father wouldn't like it if Iwere to be killed; but I shouldn't be, for I should come down in thetree-tops, and then fall from bough to bough into the river, and it'sdeep just under the raven's nest."
Thinking this, he went on, up and up, cautiously, clear of head as onewho had from childhood played about the cliffs, and reaching the summitbreathless, to stand on the extreme verge, watching one of the ravens,which came sailing up, saw him at a distance, rose above his head, andthen began to circle round, uttering hoarse cries.
"Ah, thief!" cried the lad; "I see what you have in your beak. Achicken; but your tricks are at an end. No more feeding young ravenshere."
"Better get to the nest, first, though," said the boy laughingly; and heleaned forward, quite out of the perpendicular, to look down below thebush which sheltered the nest. "Easy enough: I can do it. If RalphDarley had been half a fellow, he would have taken it himself. Bettertake off my sword, though. No; mustn't leave that in the enemy'scountry. I'll take it down with me. Be nice to come up again, and findthat one of those ragged Jacks had got hold of it! I wonder whether SirMorton engaged them the other day. Very likely. He's bad enough to dosuch an ungentlemanly thing. What did that fellow call himself. Pearlnose? Ought to have been Ruby nose. No, no; I remember now; it wasPearl Rose. My word, how high and mighty he was! Quite threatening.He'd go straight to Sir Morton Darley, if father did not enlist him andhis men in our service. That upset father, just as he was thinkingwhether he should have them. He never could bear being threatened. Howsoon he sent them about their business, and threatened to summon theminers as well as our men. It will be awkward, though, if Sir Mortonhas engaged them, and strengthened his followers like that. May mean anattack. I wonder whether he did take their offer. If he has, fatherwill wish he had agreed to the fellow's terms. I don't know, though.As he said to me, they would have been falling out with the mine men,and they seemed a ragged, drunken-looking set. Glad he sent them abouttheir business."
All this,
suggested by the possibility of losing his sword, just when hewas upon an enemy's land; but he had not stopped on the top to think,for after lying down upon his breast, to gaze down and select the bestplace for his descent, he turned as he mused, lowered his legs, andbegan to descend, finding that after all his sword was not much in hisway.
It was no new thing to Mark Eden to climb about the limestone cliffs,which formed one side of the Gleame, sometimes sloping down gradually,at others perpendicular, and in some cases partly overhanging, though inthe latter case, it meant only for a few winters before, after beingwell saturated, the frost split them, piece by piece, till they wentthundering down among the trees, generally to bound right into the riverbed.
But, sloping or perpendicular, the formation was nearly always the same,stratum after stratum of from one to three feet in thickness, lying oneupon the other, and riven into blocks which looked as if they had beenlaid by giant masons, to form a monstrous wall. Consequently, betweenthe strata and their upright dividing cracks, there were plenty ofplaces where a bold climber could find foot and hand-hold, withoutcounting upon roots of trees, wiry shrubs, and tough herbs, to hold onby when other objects failed.
So easily enough, down went Mark, humming his tune again, and changingthe humming to singing about the three ravens sitting on a tree, thoughin this instance, excepting the young in the nest below, there were onlytwo, and instead of sitting, they were sailing round and round, croakingand barking angrily, the cock bird, if it was not the hen, making apretence every now and then, to dart down and strike at the would-bemarauder, who was descending to their home.
But Mark lowered himself steadily enough, laughing at the angry birds,and listening for the first cries of their young, as he wondered how bigthey would be.
He soon found that appearances were deceitful, upon a great height likethat, for instead of the bush which hid the nest, being forty feet fromthe cliff brow, it was a good sixty, and the climbing was not so good ashe had anticipated. The limestone crumbled away here and there; tuftsof tough grass came out by the roots, and the stunted stems of busheswere not plentiful enough for hand-hold. But whenever the lad found theplace too difficult, he edged off to right or left, and found an easierspot from which he lowered himself, and edged his way back along thejoining of the next row of blocks.
To any one gazing from the opposite side, his appearance, flattenedagainst the cliff, would have seemed appalling, but to Mark Eden it wasa mere nothing; he was descending the old cliff, and trying to find theeasiest way, that was all. No nervous qualms troubled him, and thethought of falling never once came into his head.
Lower and lower, with the sun beating upon his back, and the ravenscroaking more and more loudly, and getting more threatening.
"Just wait till I get down to the bush, my fine fellows," he said aloud."Then you may come on if you like, and I should like to see you do it;only look out, for it means spitting yourselves. Glad I brought mysword."
He was now only about ten feet above the bush; and as he held on for afew moments and looked down, he saw that there was a good-sized ledge infront of a cranny, in which the nest must be, and upon this ledge,bones, bits of wool, feathers, and remains of rabbits' fur, werescattered, showing how hard the old birds had worked to feed theiryoung.
He saw, too, something else which completely upset one of his plans,which was, to continue his descent right to the bottom of the cliff,after securing the young ravens; for the strata retired for somedistance below the bush, and he grasped at once the fact, that he mustreturn by the way he descended.
"Wish I had a bag with me," he thought, as he heard a peculiar squeakingarise from beneath his feet. "Never mind: I'll tie their legs togetherwith my handkerchief, or thrust them into toy breast."
_Croak_--_croak_--_craw_--_awk_! came from one of the ravens, as itswept by him with a rush.
"Wait a minute, my fine fellow, or madam," said the boy. "Hard for you,perhaps; but how many chickens and ducklings have you stolen? how manyunfortunate lambs have you blinded this spring? Can't have ravens here.Hah! that's it."
For upon forcing his hands well into a fault in the rock, he had loweredhis feet and found good foot-hold on the ledge, lowered himself a littlemore, and saw that he could easily sit down, hold on by his left hand,the stout bush being ready, and draw out a pair of well-grown nestlingsas soon as he liked.
"I'm afraid, Master Rayburn, that if there are eggs I should get thembroken if I put them in my pocket," he said aloud; "and if they dobreak, phew! It would be horrible. Ah, put them in my cap. Let'ssee."
He thrust his right hand into the niche, and snatched it back, for theyoung ravens were big enough to use their beaks fiercely, and set up aloud, hoarse series of cries, as soon as they found that an enemy was atthe gate.
"You vicious little wretches!" he cried. "My word, they can bite. Ah,would you!"
This was to one of the ravens, which rendered frantic by the cries ofthe young, swooped at him, and struck him with a wing in passing.
"Declaration of war, eh!" he said. "Well, it's your doing, youmurderous creatures, you lamb-slayers. I did not know you could be sofierce."
The raven had sailed off to a distance now, croaking loudly, and joinedits mate; and as at the next movement of Mark, seated on his perilousperch, the young ravens screeched hoarsely again, it was evident thatthere was to be a fresh attack, this time united.
But the lad reached down his right arm, got hold of the hilt of his thinrapier, and pressing closely to the niche, drew the weapon from itssheath.
"Now then!" he cried, as the blade flashed in the sunshine, "I'm readyfor you. A new way of killing ravens. Come on."
He had not long to wait, for finding the entrance to their nesting-placepartly darkened, the young birds set up a loud series of cries,maddening the old ones, and with a rush, down came one of them, sofiercely that the lad's arm received a heavy stroke from a powerfulwing, the sword, passing through the feathers, between the bird's wingand body.
"That's one to you," said the lad, drawing his breath with a sharp hiss."My word, you can hit hard! It's your life or mine, my fine fellow, solook out."
Almost before he had breathed these words, amidst the outcry made by theyoung, the second raven stooped at him, just as a falcon would at aheron, and it came so unexpectedly, that once more the point of thesword was ill directed, and a severe buffet of the bird's wing nearlysent him down.
"This is getting too serious," he said, pressing his teeth together, ashe for the first time fully realised what enormous power a bird has inits breast muscles.
They gave him no time for thinking, the first bird which had attacked,after taking a swift curve round and upward, coming down again with afierce rush. But it was its last. Mark's sword was too well pointedthis time; there was a whirr, a heavy thud which made the hilt jaragainst the lad's thigh, and the brave fierce bird had spitted itself sothoroughly, that it struggled and beat its wings heavily as it lay onthe lad's lap, till he thrust out his arm to keep off the rain of blows,and the bird fluttered itself off the rapier, and fell with the force ofa stone, down, down, out of sight.
A hoarse croak set the lad on guard again, and none too soon, for oncemore he received a heavy blow from the companion raven's wing, as itpassed him with a whirr, striking the bush as well. Then recoveringitself from the stoop which carried it low down, it sailed up again, toprepare for another attack.
"A bad miss," muttered the lad. "There was so little time to aim. Nowthen, come on again."
The raven was far enough away, but as if it heard the challenge, itswept round, and came on now from the other direction, an awkward onefor Mark; but he managed to hoist himself round a little, and presentedhis point steadily at the advancing bird, as it came on, looking smallat first, then rapidly appearing bigger and bigger, till, with a furiouswhish through the air, it was upon him.
"Hah!" ejaculated the lad, as his right arm was swung round by theviolence of the raven's stoop, and the unfortu
nate bird had shared itsmate's fate, for with the rush it had not only pierced itself throughand through, but swept itself off the blade, wrenching the holder'sshoulder, and falling, fluttering feebly, downward, till it too passedfrom sight.
"Well done, brave birds!" panted the lad. "Seems too bad: but it hassaved no end of lambs. Who'd have thought that they would fight likethat? Why, they could have beaten me off. Lucky I brought my sword.Phew! it has made me hot," he muttered, as he wiped the blade carefully;and after a little wriggling to find the hole in the scabbard, thrustthe weapon home. "They will not come at me again; so now for our youngfriends."
He began to feel the nest again, making the young birds squeal hoarsely,and peck at him viciously as well; but after the parents' attack, thisseemed trifling, and, to his great satisfaction, he found that there wasan egg as well.
"Must get that down safe," he said. "Old Master Rayburn will be so--"
He did not finish his sentence, for at that moment a hoarse voiceshouted: "Hallo, below! What you doing there?" And looking up, to hishorror he saw three heads against the sky, as their owners lay on thecliff and looked down at him; one of the faces being that of RalphDarley, the others, those of two of the enemy's men.